The ministry of Water and Environment has reaffirmed its partnership with the East African Carbon Company (EACC) to provide a framework through which the two parties can jointly advance Uganda’s climate and environmental priorities by developing credible, properly regulated nature-based carbon projects.
The 30-year agreement, which was signed last year, focuses on interventions such as restoring degraded forests and wetlands, conserving important ecosystems and promoting sustainable land management.
These activities are intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase carbon removals and attract climate finance while delivering environmental and socio-economic benefits.
The event, which took place on August 27 at Latitude 0 in Makindye, had the ministry represented by several top officials led by Dr Alfred Okot Okidi, the permanent secretary while Naveed Tariq led the EACC team as CEO.
Muhammad Semambo Kasagazi, the assistant commissioner for Climate Change (Adaptation and Mitigation), broke down the complex issue of carbon credits in simple terms.
“Carbon credits are the buying of permission to pollute. For example, if you are a company whose business and production processes are necessarily polluting because of the nature of your business, then you find a place or another country or another company that is doing work to clean the environment. This happens where you cannot avoid polluting where you are,” he said.
“So, you pay somebody else in some place who is doing work to reverse the effects of your own actions that are damaging the environment. Your company/factory is emitting carbon dioxide into the environment, which is warming up the earth and causing the negative effects. But to offset your actions, you are paying someone who is working on removing or absorbing that carbon dioxide from the air.”
On his part, Bob Ogwang, the commissioner for Meteorology, noted that Uganda’s temperatures are rising between 0.23 & 0.25 degree Celsius per decade and this needs to be stemmed through efforts such as restoring degraded forests and other ecosystems, promoting sustainable land management and supporting climate-smart livelihoods for local communities, among others.
“There is need for early warning information to avert future disasters and it is through such discussions that ideas are developed,” he said.
According to Bob Kazungu, the assistant commissioner for Forestry, EACC is developing and implementing nature-based carbon projects focused on restoring degraded forests and other ecosystems.
“Conserving forests is being done through initiatives such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) as well as promoting sustainable land management, among others,” he said.
On the complex issue of how the trade of carbon credits actually works, Dr Okidi said it is important to note that carbon credits are an intangible commodity.
“The carbon credit system is not as regulated as other markets, and they are traded in what is known as a voluntary market. Secondly, companies don’t deal with each other directly. There are companies in between and that is what EACC is doing,” he said.
Tariq summed up the discussion by noting that EACC is fully focused on interventions such as restoring degraded forests and wetlands, conserving important ecosystems and promoting sustainable land management.
“These activities are not only reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing carbon removals and attracting climate finance, they are delivering environmental and socio-economic benefits,” he said.